Drope said the ideal tax rate is the rate at which taxes can be raised as high as possible without driving down revenues. “That’s really what we’re looking for in most countries and Malaysia.”

He said raising taxes on tobacco products is arguably the most effective and straightforward solution to reduce consumption.

Those seem like contradictory goals. If you’re looking to maintain revenue on the sale of your poison then you are not looking to minimize the customers of your poison.

"When we raise excise taxes on tobacco products, it drives up the price and when the price goes up, consumers react in several ways: young people don’t start to use tobacco products, and people who already smoke or use tobacco stop or cut down.

This really has an enormous effect on consumption, and it really drives down the amount of tobacco use in the world," Drope said.

When you drive up the price you also predominately impose a burden on the impoverished. It’s not an equitable solution. An alternative option is to constantly increase the minimum age to purchase so that anyone alive today under the age of 21 will never be able to legally buy a cigarette. This does nothing to help those who currently struggle with their use, and some publicly funded supplementary programs for their benefit are also warranted, but this would help keep new addictions low.